Japanese Cuisine 101: Basic Ingredients, Dishes, and Where to Start

Kikkoman Soy Sauce is the bottle you start with: a Japanese koikuchi soy sauce, brewed from soybeans, wheat, salt, and water. Koikuchi is the standard, everyday soy sauce in Japan, milder and more aromatic than Chinese light soy sauce, for dipping, marinating, and as a base for almost every sauce. If you cook without wheat, try Kikkoman Tamari, which is brewed without wheat, and for cold soba or as a dip with tempura, there is Kikkoman Hon Tsuyu, a ready-made mix of soy sauce, dashi, and mirin. As an alternative, there is Yamasa Soy Sauce. You can read about all types, from koikuchi to tamari, in Soy Sauce 101.

Itamae Hon Mirin is real mirin: a sweet rice wine made from glutinous rice, koji, and rice distillate, with about 14 percent alcohol. Mirin gives a soft sweetness and a beautiful shine to teriyaki, the sauce for gyu don, and stews. There are also mirin-like flavorings that are sweeter and contain less alcohol, such as Mizkan Mirin Seasoning and Marukin Mirin Fu. You can read about the difference between hon mirin and the rest in Mirin 101.

Hinode Ryorishu is cooking sake: sake intended for cooking that already contains some salt, so taste before adding salt yourself. A splash in the marinade, the stew, or the pan with fish adds depth and removes the sharp smell of fish and meat, and in dishes like nikujaga, it simply belongs. You can also use a dry drinking sake, such as Gekkeikan Junmai Sake.

Mizkan Rice Vinegar is Japanese rice vinegar: milder and less sharp than Western vinegar, with a light sweetness. You use it for sushi rice, dressings, and sunomono, fresh vinegar salads as a side dish. If you want to make it easy for yourself with sushi, try sushi vinegar where sugar and salt are already mixed in, such as Mizkan Sushi Seasoning. You can find more types in the collection Japanese vinegar, mirin, and cooking sake.

Hidaka Kombu and Wadakyu katsuobushi are the two ingredients in classic dashi. Kombu is dried kelp, katsuobushi are paper-thin shavings of dried, smoked bonito, and together they create a mild, deep umami without making the broth heavy. You can find out how to steep them together in our recipe for ichiban dashi. For everyday use, dashi powder, dashi no moto, is a great base, such as Shimaya Dashi No Moto. If you cook vegetarian, make kombu dashi from kombu alone, or shiitake dashi from dried shiitake.

Hikari Shinshu Miso is a light brown rice miso that works for almost anything, making it a great first jar. Miso is a paste made from fermented soybeans, usually with rice or barley. White miso (shiro) is aged for a shorter time and is milder and sweeter; red miso (aka) is aged longer and is saltier and richer: white for soup and dressings, red for hearty stews and marinades. Stir miso into the soup only at the end and do not boil it afterwards, so its aroma remains at its best. Taste its sweet side in saikyo yaki, salmon marinated in sweet white miso, and read all about the different types in Miso 101.

JFC Yume Nishiki is short-grain Japanese rice, the kind of rice you eat every day in Japan and use to make sushi, donburi and onigiri. Short-grain rice cooks up shiny and slightly sticky, so you can eat it with chopsticks and shape it into rice balls. Rinse the rice a few times in cold water until the water is almost clear, then let it soak for a while and cook it with just a little more water than rice. Other good choices are Akafuji Koshihikari Sushi Rice and Kotobuki Sushi Rice. Read how to make sushi rice in Making sushi at home. You can find the full selection in Japanese rice.

Jhfoods Yaki Nori Gold is roasted nori: thin, crispy sheets of seaweed that you can use to roll maki, wrap onigiri or cut into strips over ramen and rice. For miso soup, use wakame, a soft seaweed that you buy dried and that expands in a few minutes, such as Otomegusa Cut Wakame, and you already know kombu from the dashi. You can find everything in the Japanese seaweed collection.

Kadoya Pure Sesame Oil is Japanese sesame oil made from roasted sesame seeds, with a deep, nutty aroma. A few drops over noodles or a salad are enough, but in Japanese cuisine sesame is used just as often as a seed: roasted and coarsely ground in goma-ae, spinach with sesame dressing, or in goma dare, a creamy sesame sauce for shabu-shabu. You can buy roasted seeds ready-made, such as Suki Roasted Black Sesame Seeds. Read how Japanese sesame oil differs from Chinese and Korean sesame oil in Sesame oil explained.

Obento Panko is Japanese breadcrumbs made from crustless bread, coarse and light, for a light and crispy coating. You use it for tonkatsu, the breaded pork cutlet you see in katsudon and for chicken katsu. Tempura is something different: you dip vegetables and shrimp in a thin batter made from ice-cold water and flour, for example with Tempurako Tempura Mix. Read when to choose which one in Tempura vs. panko.

Tanaka Furikake Nori Tamago is furikake with seaweed and egg, one of the best-known flavours of this Japanese seasoning. Furikake is a dry mixture of nori, sesame and salt, often supplemented with dried fish, egg or spices, and you sprinkle it over a bowl of white rice, onigiri or a fried egg. If you like it spicy, try Kameya Wasabi Furikake. Check the label if you are vegetarian, because many varieties contain fish. You can find more flavours and ideas in What is furikake?.

S&B Wasabi is the spicy green paste you know from sushi and sashimi. Real wasabi is a root that is difficult to get fresh outside Japan, and therefore wasabi from a tube or tin usually also contains horseradish and mustard; you can see exactly what is in it on the label. A little between the rice and the fish is enough to clear your nose without overpowering the fish.

Kikkoman Ponzu Citrus Soy Sauce is soy sauce with citrus juice and vinegar: fresh, salty and slightly sour at the same time. You dip gyoza and shabu-shabu in it or drizzle it over grilled fish; if you use a lot, you can get the litre bottle. You can also make it yourself, with our recipe for ponzu. One of the citrus fruits that often goes into ponzu is yuzu, a Japanese citrus fruit with an aroma somewhere between mandarin, lemon and grapefruit, which you can also find in yuzu kosho, a spicy paste of yuzu peel, green chili pepper and salt. Read more in Ponzu 101 and Yuzu 101.

Nabe means pot, and that is also the name of the Japanese way of eating together from one steaming pot in the middle of the table. Everyone cooks their own tofu, vegetables and thinly sliced meat and dips it in ponzu or sesame sauce. The best-known varieties are sukiyaki, with a sweet broth of soy sauce and mirin, and shabu-shabu, where you briefly dip thin slices of meat in a light dashi. Traditionally, nabe is cooked in a donabe made of thick earthenware, and you finish with rice or noodles in the broth. If you want to get started quickly, Daisho Sukiyaki Hot Pot Base is a handy base.

If you're not sure where to start, start with these five: Kikkoman soy sauce, mirin, miso, dashi powder and a bag of Japanese rice. With that you can already make miso soup, gyu don, oyakodon and teriyaki, and rice vinegar, nori and sesame will follow naturally as soon as you feel like sushi or a fresh salad.